TRENDING

NASA satellites bolster public health research

By Kathleen Hickey

Feb 05, 2008

NASA's satellite data is beingused to fight malaria, childhoodasthma and strokes. A partnershipbetween NASA's NationalSpace Science and TechnologyCenter (NSSTC) and theSchool of Public Health at theUniversity of Alabama atBirmingham (UAB) is usingthe imagery and data to determinehow environmental factorsinfluence a variety of diseasesand conditions.

Recently, NASA and UABannounced that, in the fall of2007, UAB established theLaboratory for Global HealthObservation for using satelliteimagery to study public healthproblems here and abroad.

The lab is the country's firstdedicated remote-sensing lab formedical and public health use.NSSTC scientists are workingwith the lab to teach studentshow satellite data can be used inmedicine and health.

Using geographic informationsystems technology, a Global PositioningSystem satellite receivertriangulates its position usingthree to four satellites orbitingthe Earth. Pictures from thesatellites are digitized and incorporatedinto a GIS database tocreate colorful digital maps andpictures showing the visible orthermal properties of an area,such as environmental changes,agricultural activities, water temperaturesand erosion.

'With our combined data, we'llbe able to pinpoint any statisticalrelationships between these diseasesand where these peoplelive, how hot their climate isand so forth,' Quattrochi said.'We're analyzing the data now.With the wide geographic coverage,this study's findingscould help health officials withenvironmental exposure andhealth recommendations.'

The partnership started witha study on how racial and geographicdifferences affectedthe potential for strokes. Latitudeand longitude data fromparticipants in a stroke study,Regards ' short for Reasonsfor Geographic and Racial Differencesin Stroke ' was mergedwith NASA remote-sensing data,Quattrochi said.

Regards, funded by a five-year,$28 million grant from the NationalInstitute of NeurologicalDisorders and Stroke, part of theNational Institutes of Health, isinvestigating why the rate ofstroke death is significantly higherin the southeastern UnitedStates and why blacks are morelikely to die from stroke thanwhites. Specifically, Leslie Mc-Clure, assistant professor of biostatistics,is using NASA's satellitetechnology to determine if thereis a variation in blood pressureassociated with meteorologicalconditions.

Other studies are also using thesatellite technology, including astudy on whether there is a correlationbetween seasonal affectivedisorder and sunlight radiation.